The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-02-10
QUEER OCCUPATIONS.
The Peculiar Ways In Which Some New
Workers Make a Good Living.

| The Peculiar Ways In Which Some New
Workers Make a Good Living.
New York has not attained the unique
distinction recently boasted by Paris Of
maintaining beggar factory for maim-
ing little children, so as to render them
objects of pity. Neither has it yet
reached up to London in the possession
OF necessary stores" wherein every
earthly thing in use by man is kept on
sale. There is an audacious Teuton
near Chatham Square who keeps hand
organs in mischief by repairing them.
He assumes to replenish them with new
tunes, but, of course, that is fiction,
for no hand-organ was ever heard to
play any but bald-headed and middle
aged music.
Two courageous New Yorkers follow
the useful but unpoetic business Of
hanging their fellOw-citizens. They
are not prejudiced in favor of New
Workers, but are easily persuaded to
hang men elsewhere throughout the
Union. 1t is always pretended that no
one knows their names and that only
the sheriff of this county has their ad-
dresses. One is a Hebrew, dubbed
'1saacs," and the other is a German,
called '.Minzesheimer;;" but the city
always Jumps them both under the one
name of Joseph B. Atkinson, and under
that name they draw their pay. They
rig the gallows and finally cut the rope.
Four prosperous citizens earn their
livelihoods as doctors for the lap-dogs
of rich women. As a rule the only
medicine they use is starvation. They
fling the dear pets into barred boxes
and deprive them of food for four days,
having found out that the usual trouble
with pet dogs is that they are fed ex-
travagantly and improperly. Just east
OF the BOwery in Il tenement house re-
sides man whose business is to rent
himself and his Punch and Judy show
to children's parties in the brOwn-stone
wards. A person on the BOwery keeps
six or eight girls busy framing wreaths
and pictures of tOmbStOneS, whereOn
are set forth the virtues of deceased
New Workers. He follows where the
death notices in the papers lead him
and works upon the feelings of the grief
stricken families
Another man is making a fortune by
carrying off all the waste and refuse the
city will not remove, such as builders
leavings, dirt from cellar diggings and
so on. The builders pay him to take it,
and then he sells it in the suburbs for
filling in sunken lands.
Only one man in town pretends to
keep photographs of all the notable
persons in the world. There is not
room for two in the business. Another
citizen sells to public men and corpora
tons clippings from all the newspapers
that mention them, ut five cents "a clip
ping added to subscription fee each
wear.
Yet another citizen hunts up cOatS-of-
arms and pedigrees for all who think
theirs have been overlooked, or that
they may get them from families of the |
same, or nearly the same. names as
heir own. This is quite English and
therefore popular. 1t is said that the
are giving away coats
)f-arms like chromoS
The trade in painting black eyes with !
4 mixture of six parts white paint and |
,ne part red, now boasts several estab- /
ishments. 1t is not popularizing the
black eve, because it only covers up the |
scandal without producing forgetful-
less.
One New Yorker has posted himself
about all the unclaimed estates in
and thus profits by a
weakness more general than most folks
Another New Yorker searches the
streets at night with lantern for
,oins and purses dropped during the
evening.
A woman near the City Hall takes
are OF the babies whose widowed
Mothers have to 90 ont to work. and
Who check them. like umbrellas, in the
and call for them in the even
ne. Many women in the East Side
enements take care of baby or two
or their neighbors, but this downtown
ne is, | think. the only regular safe
'aby safe deposit company or storage
warehouse in town.
There is no matrimonial agency or
exchange newspaper here
ust now. There have been many, but
IL have failed. That scheme is not rs
rofitable as that of man l met the
ther day, who told me he trained valu-
bic dogs to come straight back to him
5 often rs ne sold them.-JHLian Ralph,